Trust
by tortgirl
Summary: Saito beckons the team for one last job involving his mistress. But Cobb needs the help of an old colleage who is dying. Not going to focus much on pairings but they will be there. Please review.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, this is a first. I'm trying to write a serious, well thought fanfic. I love Inception, it's one of my favorite movies and I know I'll never do it justice but doing this and entertaining my creative flow just helps so much. I really hope you like it. I'm mapping out the rest of the plot in my head at the moment. I'm thinking this will be about 15 to 20 chapters. I'm not really going to focus on pairings; there will be some implications here and there but this will mostly be plot driven as opposed to character, which is another thing I'm not used to. Please review, I would love critiques and improvements maybe even some ideas. **

It had been a mere three months since the inception job and Cobb was supposed to be retired. But of course the second Saito needed another job done Cobb went right to the rescue. So now they are in their new workshop in Beijing. Cobb had gotten the old team together, Arthur, Eames, Yusuf and Ariadne.

The job wasn't difficult per say. It was just messy. Saito wanted information from his mistress to see if she had given any information to one of his leading rivals. So of course he called Cobb. Cobb and Saito had remained somewhat close after the inception. Not drinking buddies close but every Sunday at around noon he would get a call from Saito. They talked about different things; the conversation always lasted from ten to fifteen minutes. And it always contained a thank you. A thank you for everything. Whether on Saito or Cobb's part.

But the Sunday before he had gotten a different call, one explaining what he needed and how important it was. Cobb couldn't say no. And truth be told he didn't want to, he missed doing what he did as illicit as it was.

Immediately after the phone call Cobb called Arthur, who was happy to start working. Arthur had been taking a leave as well. He had gone down to the Virgin islands for a while to have a nice vacation. It didn't work out, Arthur could not relax, he needed to be doing something productive at all times. Cobb told Arthur to call Ariadne and ask if she wanted in. He also told him that she would not be entering the dream at anytime and to make that clear. He did. She agreed anyway. Cobb tracked down Eames and Yusuf and they made their way to Beijing where Saito's mistress Tai Huin lived. And there they were.

The plan was to go in. They were going to be in a restaurant. Eames was to pose as Saito and they were supposed to be eating dinner, then Cobb will come in and try to get the information out of her. Arthur was to talk to the projections and see what he could get from them. But it still wasn't flawless. Cobb thought there was a way to get Saito and someone else from Tai Huin's past. But there was no way. Unless they had another forger.

"Absolutely not." Arthur said as Cobb mentioned it to him.

"It would make the job full proof; it would cause her so much emotional distress that information would just drop. She wouldn't even need to see or interact with me, that way I can focus more on a safe or whatever would hold the information." Cobb rationalized but Arthur still wasn't convinced.

"We only know one other forger and she's half dead." Arthur told him.

It was around 2 a.m. they were standing outside their warehouse. Eames was inside with Yusuf experimenting with sedatives. The air was cold, both Cobb and Arthur were wearing heavy coats. Arthur's a little more expensive looking.

"She'll do it." Cobb said. His voice had that persuasive Extractor tone to it.

"If she's even still alive, she could barely stand last time we saw her." Arthur told him remembering the way her skinny frame looked like a corpse and how she would topple over.

"Katherine's always been a fighter, get a hold of her and when you do we're going to go ask her in person." Cobb said. The decision was final. There was no getting it in his head that it was a bad idea. Cobb had already started walking back inside. Arthur stayed a little longer trying to collect himself and then followed.

Inside Eames was unconscious by sedative and Ariadne was unconscious by exhaustion.

Arthur went up to her workspace. Her head was on her desk on top of a model of a maze; her arm was covering her face.

Arthur placed a light hand on her shoulder and gave her a slight shake.

"I'm not asleep; I'm just resting my eyes." She said immediately and alertly.

"Well rest them in your hotel." He said just as briskly.

She looked up at him; the maze left a mark on her cheek. She blinked and nodded.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to do that." She said with a yawn. She got up and grabbed her coat and walked out the door without as much as a goodbye to anyone. Saito's men were outside and would take her back to her hotel.

Arthur then took his coat off and went to work on finding Katherine.

"Wait so who's Katherine?" Ariadne asked during breakfast with Arthur. They were in the hotel restaurant which was filled with tourists therefore had great European coffee. It was one of the nicest hotels in Beijing it was also owned by Saito, so of course the whole crew was staying there.

Arthur had asked Ariadne to breakfast after his long night of research. He usually talked to her about his complaints with Cobb.

"She's a forger we used to work with. Eames knows her better than we do, but she was really good at her job. She had been working with dreams since she was about seventeen, experimenting with sedatives and all that; she got into a bad one. It caused the nerves in her right leg to die. Slowly and painfully. Last time we saw her she had almost no feeling in it. The medication she's on causes her to be awake most of the time so she can only sleep with sedatives. This causes her reasoning ability to not be so good. She retired a year ago after she completely bombed a job. Plus she's just not strong enough anymore." Arthur finished and took a sip of his coffee.

"But what does Cobb want with her?" She asked still trying to get a big picture of it all.

Arthur sighed and looked down at his cup. He looked clean cut as usual, slicked back hair, pristine button up shirt with purple and yellow stripes and clean pressed trousers. But he seemed a bit uneasy at that moment like something wasn't sitting well with him.

"He has a plan for the extraction. Two forgers. One will be Saito the other…I don't know he hasn't told me. But he insists that this will be the only way for it to work out. He said he wouldn't even need to extract the information that the presence of both of them will bring out the safe." Arthur said this tightly and tried to remain as composed as possible.

Ariadne nodded and took a sip of her coffee. "He's hiding something." She said.

"Mmhmm." Arthur agreed.

"It's never good when Cobb is hiding something." She stated.

"Nope." Arthur agreed again.


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you find her yet?" Cobb asked as Ariadne and Arthur walked through the warehouse door.

Arthur took a deep breath of frustration and replied. "Yes." Of course he did, it took him an hour to do it. He's not Google, but he gets the job done.

Ariadne continued walking to her work station and sat down with her models. She was listening to every word they were saying but pretending to ignore them.

Arthur and Cobb walked towards the center of the warehouse where Eames was.

"We're getting Katherine." Cobb said as he approached him.

Eames started shaking his head. "It's not good idea. Last I saw her, her mind was half gone." Eames said sadly.

Cobb shook his head and started pacing. "She's fine. A little beat up, but she's fine. She's hiding. Scared. Scared and hiding."

Arthur and Eames just looked at him.

"Cobb, how long has it been since you've slept?" Eames enquired.

"What?" Cobb asked looking a bit disoriented.

"That long eh? Yusuf have Cobb take a bit of a nap with that wonderful sedative you gave me last night." Eames told Yusuf.

Yusuf looked at him. "You said you couldn't remember what was happening in that dream."

"Exactly, I haven't slept that good in ages. Hop to it then, and when you've rested we'll discuss Katherine again. Sound good?" Eames was using his condescending voice.

"Eames, I'm not going to try a sedative that doesn't work." Cobb sated blankly.

"Oh it's great look, just sleep for a bit, test it out. When you wake up we'll discuss Katherine. But really, just do this." Cobb shook his head but lied down on the beach chair and let Yusuf give him the sedative anyway.

"Excellent, he should be out for a while. He'll need time to clear his head." Eames then turned to Arthur. "Now tell me where Katherine is."

"Sidney." Arthur replied briskly.

"Sidney, that's good. She always liked Australia. Do you know if she's alright? Her condition, has it worsened?" Eames' voice had taken a softer tone as opposed to his dry yet good natured one he usually had.

"She's been admitted to the hospital twice this year. Once for malnutrition and the other for a broken arm. I don't know if that has to do with her condition." Arthur concluded and Eames nodded.

Eames then walked out of the building without another word.

"You should probably go after him." Ariadne said from across the room.

Arthur looked at her and thought about it. "No, he needs to think."

"Was he close to her?" Ariadne asked.

He walked over to her work station and sat on the chair closest to her desk.

"She taught him everything he knew. He was just an extractor but she knew all the dirty tricks and taught them to him. I'm not sure how they met but they were quite the pair. She had always been sick but it got really bad. She took off at one point took a few jobs but after that last one, she disappeared. We never bothered to look for her, we knew using her wouldn't be good and she couldn't do it anymore." His leaned his elbows on his knees and took a deep breath. "I don't understand why Cobb wants her so badly."

"Cobb has this way about him. He's obsessive, I mean I don't know him as well as you do. But from what I do know, he's obsessive and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants." Ariadne said matter-of-factly. Not in a dark way, but just saying how it was.

"No you're right. I think if he sees her he'll give up. Last time we saw her she was bad considering she's only been getting worse…hopefully he'll let it go." Arthur said this more to himself than to her.

Ariadne nodded and put her hand on his knee. "Don't let this stress you out, just keep focusing on the work. Have you found out anything new on the mark?"

"A few things," He said grateful for the change of subject. "Nothing we can use though."

"Don't be so sure, you never know what it all means subconsciously."

"So what's been happening in your head lately?" Eames asked Cobb when he woke up.

Cobb shook his head. "I know it sounds crazy, but I need Katherine for this job. I need another forger and I need a good one. I need one that's better than you."

"If she's too sick, you have to give this up." Eames said darkly.

"She won't. I knew her too, Eames. She won't give this job up."

"Who are you texting?" Eames asked Arthur at the airport. They had just gotten to Sidney and were waiting for their rental car.

Arthur put his phone in his pocket and looked at Eames. "I was informing Ariadne about our trip. I also needed to tell her a few things about the job that she needs to get done in my absence." He cleared.

Eames gave him a look. "Right. Well you sure do spend lots of time with her. You come in together, you usually leave together. You talk every five seconds about something or other now you're texting. Hmmm."

Arthur gave him a goaded look and looked like he would say something but then Cobb came by with the keys to the rental.

The drive in Sidney was a long one, like all large cities the traffic was a nightmare. They finally made it into Katherine's neighborhood an hour later.

"Here it is." Arthur said. Cobb parked the car and fueled the meter; all three of them went in the building.

The building wasn't terrible, it was bordering on three star but the graffiti made it hard to judge. The men walked three flights of stairs to the forger's apartment.

"3B," Arthur said. Then Eames knocked.

There was silence. No one dared talk, they just listened for movement.

About a minute later they heard the jangling of the door's locks and then the door opening revealing a gaunt girl in gray sweats and matted dirty blonde hair.

"Let me just take a guess at why you three are here."


End file.
